Chennai, Oct 29 The Tamil Nadu police detained an Assistant Professor at MIDS, allegedly over an abusive Instagram comment targeting TVK MLA J Kamatchi, but later released him after confirming that his photograph had been misused to create a fake account.
The police action, however, drew criticism from DMK president M K Stalin, who on Thursday termed the detention of A Kalaiyarasan in an early morning operation as “peak of fascism”.
Strongly condemning the TVK government over the early morning action, the DMK chief alleged that the renowned economist and co-author of the book titled ‘The Dravidian Model’ was targeted for exposing unprecedented price hikes under the current administration.
The Madras Institute of Development Studies Assistant Professor was picked up from his residence here by the Tamil Nadu police early on Wednesday morning allegedly over an abusive Instagram comment targeting the Pallavaram TVK legislator.
However, he returned home three hours later after the police confirmed that his photograph had been misused to create a fake account.
In a strongly-worded statement, the DMK chief expressed deep shock over the plainclothes police officers picking up Kalaiyarasan from his residence at dawn, bundling him into a hired vehicle, and stripping him of his basic rights and mobile phone without proper procedure.
The former CM pointed out that Kalaiyarasan is a highly respected academic who held a PhD in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and is a co-author of the internationally acclaimed book, The Dravidian Model, published by Cambridge University Press.
The professor’s credentials as a former member of the Union Planning Commission’s team, a contributor to the Tamil Nadu economic survey, and a current member of the Tamil Nadu Climate Change Governing Council were well known.
Stalin rejected the police claims of an accidental identification error, stating, “It is impossible to believe that they arrested him without knowing his identity. Intimidating educators while letting actual criminals walk free is a massive disgrace”.
Accusing the TVK government of “mimicking” the BJP’s methods, Stalin said in a post on X that “they are proving to be worse than the BJP when it comes to fascism. Does this high-handedness take place with the Chief Minister’s approval and the permission of top officials?”
He noted that Kalaiyarasan did not belong to any political party and had freely criticised the previous administration as well.
Stalin demanded an unconditional apology from the police and Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay for the “harassment and false allegations” levied against the economist.
(PTI News)
